Calorie Count: Will it Make a Difference on Menus?

The use of an obligatory calorie count on menu offerings has been met with a mixed response in terms of just how effective the move will be.

In an effort to tackle a rising obesity problem in the UK, the Government is rolling out the initiative in April, which requires any café or restaurant run by companies with more than 250 staff to include the calorie count for each item on its menu.

But a prominent associate professor of the psychology of obesity and a director of Obesity UK is unsure if the move will be enough to point people in the right direction.

Stuart Flint told the Guardian: “It might not be helpful. We need to really understand how people are going to engage with this. Is it going to mean that people only look at calories? A chocolate bar is less than a balanced meal…it’s not always about reducing the amount we eat.

“Obesity is very complex. If it was as simple as eating less or more, people wouldn’t gain weight to the extent we have at the moment, and people would be able to lose weight more easily.”

Gregg Wallace, the presenter of MasterChef, said in the same article that any education on food is a good thing, saying: “Any information or understanding of calorie content in our food – whether in takeaway menus or in restaurants – is a good idea.

“What we can measure, we can manage – and this is another step towards enabling people to make more educated choices.”

Wetherspoons already puts this information on its menus and has done so since 2012, while Pizza Express, Wagamama, and Nando’s show it on their websites, but plan to start putting it on their menus from April.

A Public Health England survey found nearly 80% of those who took part were in favour of calorie labelling.